Sanctuary Saga

Studying_Praying For Spells

Currently the rules of 3.5 D+D State that spellcasters must “re-learn” their spells each day. For Mages it’s studying a spellbook while for Druids and Clerics it’s praying each morning for new spells.

I don’t like this approach at all as it’s not practical to lug around a huge spellbook with you on your travels or to know what spells you’ll need in a pinch. So we’ll do away with this system and instead do the following.

Each spell a spellcaster has studied and memorized is available to them whenever they want to cast it. The more a spell is used the less the chance for failure becomes. Depending on the Intelligence score of the caster new spells start at a certain percentage chance of failure and that chance goes down for every successful casting.

0-Level spells have no chance of failure as it’s assumed the caster has been studying them for years and they are a part of their training.

The longer a caster goes without casting a particular spell raises the chance of failure of the spell. The only way to reverse this depredation without casting the spell is to re-study or pray for the spell again, this will reset the “Chance of Failure” back to whatever it was to begin with.

The same applies to Clerics, Druids, Rangers, Sorcerers and Bards whether it be Praying for Spells or Studying for them. For Clerics they are more than welcome to pray each morning for their spells but it’s not required.

For instance, Aranel is a 1st Level Mage, with an Intelligence score of 14. She is allowed 3 0-Level Spells and 2 1st Level Spells per day (1 1st Level Spell + 1 for Intelligence Modifier).

Aranel learns the spell Magic Missile and adds it to her spellbook. She studies her spellbook before leaving for an adventure. The first three days of travel she doesn’t have a need to cast the spell so she doesn’t. On the 4th day the party is attacked and she decided to cast magic missile. Since she hasn’t cast the spell nor re-studied it in 4 days there is a percentage chance of failure that the GM knows.

Once she’s done with the adventure she can re-study her spellbook and the percentage chance of failure goes back down.

After a spell has been successfully cast 10 times it is considered “Known” and the percentage chance of it failing is nullified forever.